Tribeca: “Stealing Magic” is Stranger Than Any Illusion
One of my favorite shows to watch while I was home sick from school as a kid was Breaking the Magician’s Code: Magic’s Biggest Secrets Finally Revealed. A tall man in a mask would expose the secrets of the magic world. In my memory, the narrator would talk about how dangerous this was for the magician, and that’s why he was wearing a mask. Of course, if you check the Wikipedia article today, you can find the exact identity of that magician, but the show did instill in me an understanding that respect is king in this community. In the Tribeca world-premiering documentary Stealing Magic, however, it’s clear that some people don’t have the same understanding of the world of magic.
Courtesy of Tribeca
Andi Gladwin and Joshua Jay are friends, magicians, and owners of Vanishing Inc. Magic Shop. Not only do they perform on their own, but their shop allows the skill of magicianship to endure for current and future generations. Contrary to what audience members might think, magicians are not always creating their own tricks. They’re buying them from legitimate sources, like Vanishing Inc., and then modifying them to fit their style and act. However, someone has been stealing these tricks and selling them at a much cheaper price. Andi decides he won’t take this lying down and gathers together a team of illusionists, hackers, and more to take this website down.
As someone whose main magic knowledge comes from the aforementioned reality TV series, it’s surprising to learn what an immense economy exists out there. When we think of scammers who pirate things, magic would not be the first industry that comes to mind. As demonstrated by how quickly so many people rise to Andi’s call to action, the community seems tightknit. Everyone knows everyone else, yet there’s a pirate website, Erdnase Magic Store, that’s doing enough financial damage to make the scam worthwhile for them. Understandably, Stealing Magic follows Andi’s often insane globe-trotting quest to solve this mystery, but there’s much potential for a follow-up piece about who is keeping the Erdnase Magic Store in business. It has to be people who know of its existence, because a cursory Google search of “magic store” did not yield Erdnase as a result in the first ten pages. That feels more sinister. It’s potentially people within the magic community who are shopping there, knowing it impacts the livelihood of their fellow illusionists, in the name of saving some money.
Courtesy of Tribeca
Stealing Magic is one of those documentaries where the viewer simply cannot guess the journey they’re about to embark on. It’s all thanks to Andi. He refuses to let go of fighting back against pirates, but Joshua explains that this obsession comes at a price. That this singular focus impacts Andi’s work and creativity with Vanishing Inc. It takes a special kind of person to agree to travel around the world following a GPS signal hidden in a package, but it’s also important to know when to end it. When does obsession turn from being the force that drives you to everything you’ve built coming tumbling down because you’ve lost sight of the bigger picture.
At the end of the film, one of the subjects says, “every form of creativity is worth saving.” When Joshua and Andi lament the impact Erdnase has had, it’s not just about their business. It’s about the businesses of their friends, too. It’s about the person who writes a book about magic that sells well for the first two months, until the pirated version shows up on Erdnase, and then never writes again. Stealing Magic may focus on pirating in the world of illusions, but speaks to the larger issue of art being stolen for a quick buck. Ultimately, the documentary chooses to celebrate the power of community and connection that magic, and art of all forms, can bring, rather than allow themselves to be lost in an unwinnable fight for revenge.
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